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Java client-server GUI freezing [duplicate]

I am writing a Java client/server GUI application using sockets and here is the problem:
I have a button to start listening for a specified port:
button actionPerformed method
private void listenButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
int port = Integer.parseInt(portTextfield.getText(), 10);
try {
socket.listen(port);
} catch (IOException ex) {
}
}
Here is the socket.listen method
public static void listen() throws IOException {
ServerSocket ss = new ServerSocket(port);
while (true)
new socket(ss.accept());
}
"socket" class extends "Thread"
So after ss.accept() returns a value it creates new socket instance in separate thread.
After clicking the button the GUI freezes because inside the socket.listen method there is an infinite loop. How can I avoid that?

You have two pitfalls in your design:
ss.accept() is a blocking call so your UI will freeze until there is an incoming connection
Never run while(true) loops in the EDT.
Instead do the following:
When the button is clicked create a thread that will start listening for incoming connections.
Whenever you have an incoming connection, create another thread that will take the incoming client connection and deal with it.

as long as your
new socket(ss.accept());
returns immediately, you only need to change your
while (true)
this puts the EDT (Event Dispatch Thread) into an infinite loop and your GUI becomes irresponsive. So, delete this line.
If you can't then use the SwingWorker class ( http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/SwingWorker.html#process(java.util.List)
Create a nested class that extents SwingWorker. Just call a swingWoker.execute(); (after you have created its object) in your listenButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) method.
See the tutorial: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/concurrency/worker.html
Never create a new thread and run it from from the Swing EDT

Check this out: http://javarevisited.blogspot.ro/2012/02/what-is-blocking-methods-in-java-and.html
1) If you are writing GUI application may be in Swing never call
blocking method in Event dispatcher thread or in the event handler.
for example if you are reading a file or opening a network connection
when a button is clicked don't do that on actionPerformed() method,
instead just create another worker thread to do that job and return
from actionPerformed(). this will keep your GUI responsive, but again
it depends upon design if the operation is something which requires
user to wait than consider using invokeAndWait() for synchronous
update.
Using multiple threads: http://javarevisited.blogspot.ro/2011/02/how-to-implement-thread-in-java.html

You will need to use Multi-Threading. If I where you, I would separate the GUI code and the server code and when the button is pressed, I simply launch the Server code as a new Thread.
Your code is freezing the GUI basically because all events are executed on the Event Dispatcher Thread (EDT) which is the thread which takes care of all your GUI stuff and respective events. If you either block it, stop it or throw in loops it will affect on its performance.

Try these...
1. During getting the initial connection delay can occur, so first create and empty socket,then try to connect to the server.
`Socket s = new Socket();`
`s.connect(new InetSocketAddress("ip_addr",port_nos),1000);`
2. And Secondly always keep the Non-UI work out of Your UI thread..
Here is my Example of Server - Client Communication..
Client side code:
public class ClientWala {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
Boolean b = true;
Socket s = new Socket();
s.connect(new InetSocketAddress("127.0.0.1", 4444),1000);
System.out.println("connected: "+s.isConnected());
OutputStream output = s.getOutputStream();
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(output,true);
// to write data to server
while(b){
if (!b){
System.exit(0);
}
else {
pw.write(new Scanner(System.in).nextLine());
}
}
// to read data from server
InputStream input = s.getInputStream();
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(input);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
String data = null;
while ((data = br.readLine())!=null){
// Print it using sysout, or do whatever you want with the incoming data from server
}
}
}
Server side code:
import java.io.*
import java.net.*;
public class ServerTest {
ServerSocket s;
public void go() {
try {
s = new ServerSocket(44457);
while (true) {
Socket incoming = s.accept();
Thread t = new Thread(new MyCon(incoming));
t.start();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
class MyCon implements Runnable {
Socket incoming;
public MyCon(Socket incoming) {
this.incoming = incoming;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(incoming.getOutputStream(),
true);
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(
incoming.getInputStream());
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
String inp = null;
boolean isDone = true;
System.out.println("TYPE : BYE");
System.out.println();
while (isDone && ((inp = br.readLine()) != null)) {
System.out.println(inp);
if (inp.trim().equals("BYE")) {
System.out
.println("THANKS FOR CONNECTING...Bye for now");
isDone = false;
s.close();
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
try {
s.close();
} catch (IOException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ServerTest().go();
}
}

How to stop server in Client Server multithreading

I am implementing a multi-threaded client-server application in java. I want to implement JDBC in this program and I want my server to retrieve data from the database whenever it is started. I will store that data in my collection instances, perform manipulations on data and when server completes execution, I need to store the data back to the database. The problem is that the server is in an infinite loop waiting for clients and I am not able to figure out how to make the server stop.
This is my server program:
import java.io.*;
import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;
public class Server
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
// server is listening on port 5056
ServerSocket ss = new ServerSocket(5056);
// running infinite loop for getting
// client request
while (true)
{
Socket s = null;
try {
// socket object to receive incoming client requests
s = ss.accept();
System.out.println("A new client is connected : " + s);
// obtaining input and out streams
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(s.getInputStream());
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(s.getOutputStream());
System.out.println("Assigning new thread for this client");
// create a new thread object
Thread t = new ClientHandler(s, dis, dos);
// Invoking the start() method
t.start();
}
catch (Exception e) {
s.close();
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
// ClientHandler class
class ClientHandler extends Thread
{
DateFormat fordate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
DateFormat fortime = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm:ss");
final DataInputStream dis;
final DataOutputStream dos;
final Socket s;
// Constructor
public ClientHandler(Socket s, DataInputStream dis, DataOutputStream dos)
{
this.s = s;
this.dis = dis;
this.dos = dos;
}
#Override
public void run()
{
String received;
String toreturn;
while (true) {
try {
// Ask user what he wants
dos.writeUTF("What do you want?[Date | Time]..\n"+
"Type Exit to terminate connection.");
// receive the answer from client
received = dis.readUTF();
if(received.equals("Exit"))
{
System.out.println("Client " + this.s + " sends exit...");
System.out.println("Closing this connection.");
this.s.close();
System.out.println("Connection closed");
break;
}
// creating Date object
Date date = new Date();
// write on output stream based on the
// answer from the client
switch (received) {
case "Date" :
toreturn = fordate.format(date);
dos.writeUTF(toreturn);
break;
case "Time" :
toreturn = fortime.format(date);
dos.writeUTF(toreturn);
break;
default:
dos.writeUTF("Invalid input");
break;
}
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
try
{
// closing resources
this.dis.close();
this.dos.close();
}
catch(IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Here is my client program:
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
// Client class
public class Client
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
try
{
Scanner scn = new Scanner(System.in);
// getting localhost ip
InetAddress ip = InetAddress.getByName("localhost");
// establish the connection with server port 5056
Socket s = new Socket(ip, 5056);
// obtaining input and out streams
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(s.getInputStream());
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(s.getOutputStream());
// the following loop performs the exchange of
// information between client and client handler
while (true)
{
System.out.println(dis.readUTF());
String tosend = scn.nextLine();
dos.writeUTF(tosend);
// If client sends exit,close this connection
// and then break from the while loop
if(tosend.equals("Exit"))
{
System.out.println("Closing this connection : " + s);
s.close();
System.out.println("Connection closed");
break;
}
// printing date or time as requested by client
String received = dis.readUTF();
System.out.println(received);
}
// closing resources
scn.close();
dis.close();
dos.close();
}
catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

Overview
Great question! To reiterate what was stated in the above comments, you are looking for a server-side shutdown. There are some way of handling this situation, and I can explain it with a brief example.
ExecutorServer
I will run through a modified example based off this example. Below find the server implementation.
class NetworkService implements Runnable {
private final ServerSocket serverSocket;
private final ExecutorService pool;
private final AtomicBoolean shouldExit;
public NetworkService(int port, int poolSize) throws IOException {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(poolSize);
shouldExit = new AtomicBoolean(false); // Thread-safe boolean
}
public void run() { // run the service
try {
// While we should not exit
while(!shouldExit.get()) {
try {
pool.execute(new ClientHandler(serverSocket.accept()));
} catch (SocketException e) {
if(shouldExit.get()) break; // Poison pill has been delivered, lets stop
// Error handling
}
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
pool.shutdown();
}
// Clean up the thread pool
shutdownAndAwaitTermination();
}
}
class ClientHandler implements Runnable {
private final Socket socket;
ClientHandler (Socket socket) { this.socket = socket; }
public void run() {
...
}
...
}
Here you will modify your current Server code to intimidate this structure. You have a similar make up currently but here we have added ExecutorService.
An Executor that provides methods to manage termination and methods that can produce a Future for tracking progress of one or more asynchronous tasks.
By dispatching your ClientHandler to an ExecutorService, you are utilizing a ThreadPool. Although this comes with plenty of benefits, the most significant ones are that you have more control over your multi-threaded service, the ThreadPool will manage thread utilization, and the application efficiency will increase tremendously.
Below is how you would attempt to shutdown and terminate all remaining threads:
void shutdownAndAwaitTermination(ExecutorService pool) {
pool.shutdown(); // Disable new tasks from being submitted
try {
// Wait a while for existing tasks to terminate
if (!pool.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
pool.shutdownNow(); // Cancel currently executing tasks
// Wait a while for tasks to respond to being cancelled
if (!pool.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
System.err.println("Pool did not terminate");
}
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
// (Re-)Cancel if current thread also interrupted
pool.shutdownNow();
// Preserve interrupt status
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
}
Now, the question remains how do we shutdown the server? The above code shows a improved structure, but still have the issue of blocking on a serverSocket.accept()!
Solution
There are two ideas that come to mind when thinking of this scenario; a CLI or a GUI. Both have the same semantics, and the decision is ultimately up to you. For purposes of explaining, I will refer to a CLI approach.
Poison Pill
If you implement a new Thread() that handled all incoming commands from the CLI, this thread would act as a poison pill. The idea is to deliver a poison pill to the target such that can wake up/execute and die. The thread will change the shouldExit atomic boolean to true and create a new Socket(serverSocket.getInetAddress(), serverSocket.getLocalPort()).close(); to connect to the ServerSocket and immediately close it. In the above code, the application will no longer be blocking on the serverSocket.accept(). Instead, it will enter the try catch for SocketExceptions and test if a poison pill was utilized; If it was then lets clean up, if not lets error handle.
Timeout
You could also set a timeout on the ServerSocket such that it will throw an exception each time it cannot get a connection in that time interval with myServer.setSoTimeout(2000);. This will throw an InterruptedIOException and can be handled similarly to the poison pill where the flag is changed via a CLI command and it checks if it should exit in the catch block. If it should exit, lets clean up, if not lets error handle.

You can use pattern flag with volatile boolean variable, and you should place it in 'while' - when processing would be finished, turn it to false and the server would stop.
Another way - use thread pools and wait for them to finish in the main thread of your server.

Server Socket - Sending a test message to detect connection

I'm trying to use server sockets to set up a connection between a client and a server. I'm also not using java.nio.
The problem is that I'm constantly sending a test message, and detecting whether if it is successful in sending the message (the client is still connected), if not, then the client is disconnected.
Shown here:
try
{
Scanner in = new Scanner(socket.getInputStream());
BufferedReader in_2 = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
while(stopThread)
{
if(in_2.ready())
{
String message = in_2.readLine();
dt = new DateTime();
PrintStream out = new PrintStream(socket.getOutputStream());
server.detect(message, dataSets, out);
dataSets.add(message);
GUI.textArea_1.append(message + "\r\n");
GUI.textArea_1.setCaretPosition(GUI.textArea_1.getDocument().getLength());
}
else
{
PrintStream out = new PrintStream(socket.getOutputStream());
out.println("Testing Connection \r\n");
if(out.checkError())
{
try
{
socket.close();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
stopThread = false;
GUI.textArea.append(userName + " disconnected \r\n");
GUI.textArea.setCaretPosition(GUI.textArea.getDocument().getLength());
server.inputDataForm(userName, dt, dataSets);
}
Thread.sleep(3000);
}
}
The problem is that the Thread.sleep(3000) is actually interfering with getting data, since after 3 seconds, I will get a huge amount of data (because I stopped the thread for 3 seconds).
Now, what I proposed is a anonymous class in the else statement.
class runThread implements runnable
{
void run()
{
//Put the else statement here
}
}
But the stopThread = false is not a constant, which I'm trying to control.
Other threads I've searched only puts variables inside main inside the anonymous class, but I need stopThread to stop the while loop if the client is disconnected.
Does anyone have an idea?
Thanks!

Consider setting a short timeout on your socket. This will allow you to control how long your thread will block while waiting for data from the socket.
If data are not quickly available, a very specific java.net.SocketTimeoutException will be raised. You can handle this exception by checking your stopThread flag. If it is set, you can return from the method. Otherwise, the socket is still valid and you can try another read operation with timeout.
If any other exception type is thrown, your socket is probably no longer valid.
socket.setSoTimeout(20); /* 1/50th of a second. */
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader
(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
while (!stop) {
try {
String message = in.readLine();
if (message == null)
handleEOF();
else
handleMessage(message);
} catch(SocketTimeoutException ignore) {
/* Loop back to check "stop" flag. */
continue;
} catch(IOException ex) {
handleDisconnection();
break;
}
}
By the way, if you are using Swing, remember that you can only modify graphical components from Swing's Event Dispatch Thread, and you can't tie up the EDT in long-running operations like this socket handling. You should be passing tasks from this thread to Swing's invokeLater() utility.

Why don't you make a class that implements runnable but also has the method stop();
public class MyRunner implements Runnable(){
MutableBoolean stop = false;
public void run(){...}
public void stop(){
stop = true;
}
}

Keeping A Constant Connection With A Socket

I am trying to keep a connection open for a multithreaded server program. When I hit a button, I want it to send a test message to all clients that are connected.
public void run() {
try {
Scanner in = new Scanner(socket.getInputStream());
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream());
readUpdate(out, in);
while(true){sendUpdate(out);}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Uses way to much CPU.
This is my sendUpdate method.
private void sendUpdate(final PrintWriter out) {
new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
if(Server.send) {
try {
if (Server.command != "idle") {
System.out.println("Sending");
out.println("!msg#" + Server.command);
out.flush();
Server.send = false;
Thread.sleep(100);
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
}
}
}).start();
}
If somebody can help me keep the connection open, and ready to send data, I would appreciate it.

If your server can initiate messages and so can your client, you probably want a separate thread reading and writing. One thread makes sense for request-response style communication, where you can block on the next client request, do some server-side processing, respond to the client, and then block again.
But if you need to block on two separate conditions (receiving a message from the client and you clicking the button on the server) then you should have two separate threads. Otherwise, you will find yourself needing to repeatedly wake your thread up to check if either of the conditions are true.
So create two threads, and give one your Scanner (that does the readUpdate logic) and the other your PrintWriter. This is what your output handler could look like:
public class WriteHandler implements Runnable {
private final PrintWriter out;
private final BlockingQueue<String> messageQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<String>();
//initialize the above in a constructor;
public void run() {
while(true) {
String nextMessageToWrite = messageQueue.poll();
out.println(nextMessageToWrite);
}
}
public void send(String message) {
messageQueue.add(message);
}
}
This uses a blocking queue, which is a much better concurrency mechanism than a check-sleep loop. Then when the button is clicked, you can just have something like this:
public void actionPerformed() {
for ( WriteHandler handler : handlers ) {
handler.send("PING!");
}
}

Java multiplayer server blocking io

I am currently developing a prototype for a game and I need a simple server to run it.
At this stage, I don't want to invest the time learning about all the different full-featured multiplayer game servers already there (smartfox, etc...)
I know how to develop a basic Server with Threads listening on Sockets but I have ran into a roadblock. Here's the run() function of the Thread
public void run() {
try {
out = new PrintWriter(mSocket1.getOutputStream(), true);
in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( mSocket1.getInputStream() ) );
String inputLine1 = null, outputLine;
out.println("hello");
out.flush();
while( (inputLine1 = in.readLine()) != null) {
outputLine = mGameControl.processInput(mPlayerNum, inputLine1);
out.println(outputLine);
out.flush();
if(outputLine.contentEquals("bye"))
break;
}
Terminate();
}
catch(IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }
}
Now my problem is that the thread is blocked waiting for input. I do have other similar Threads connected to other client which may result in information being dispatched to all clients...
How can I modify it so that a different Thread can interact with it and push info to the client?

Just write a synchronised public method which writes to your PrintWriter, and allow other threads to use it to send messages to your client. Call the same method from your read loop to avoid two threads writing at the same time.
Here's a tested example:
import java.io.*;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
public class SocketTest {
public static class Client implements Runnable {
private final BufferedReader in;
private final PrintWriter out;
public Client(Socket clientSocket) throws IOException {
out = new PrintWriter(clientSocket.getOutputStream(), true);
in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( clientSocket.getInputStream() ) );
}
public void run() {
send("Hello");
String inputLine1 = null, outputLine;
try {
while( (inputLine1 = in.readLine()) != null) {
outputLine = inputLine1.toLowerCase();
System.out.println(inputLine1);
send(outputLine);
if(outputLine.contentEquals("bye"))
break;
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public synchronized void send(String message) {
out.println(message);
out.flush();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
ServerSocket s = new ServerSocket(5050);
Socket clientSocket = s.accept();
Client client = new Client(clientSocket);
Thread clientThread = new Thread(client);
clientThread.start();
int i = 1;
while (true) {
Thread.sleep(1000);
client.send("Tick " + (i++));
}
}
}

Use Netty to handle your connections and query treatments. Since I discovered that project, I never touched sockets directly anymore (except when writing C programs, etc.)
There are actually some examples to look at and the documentation is quite extensive. The project is very well alive since a couple of years already, and is not soon to die! There's a fairly large user base behind it.

If you only need to perform a non-blocking read on the socket, one of the simplests ways is to use available(). Call available and if there is data to read (bytes pending > 0), perform the read, any way, wait using Thread.sleep() and try to read again. This allow the thread to do while waiting for input data and cat react to external signals.
The use of selectors is encouraged when you need to perform high-performance non-blocking read using one thread and several sockets (java.nio.channels.Selector).